"The Army kept me in solitary confinement for nearly a year before formal charges were brought against me. It was a humiliating and degrading experience -- one that altered my mind, body and spirit. I have since been placed in solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure for an attempted suicide despite a growing effort -- led by the President of the United States -- to stop the use of solitary confinement for any purpose.
"These experiences have broken me and made me feel less than human.
"I have been fighting for years to be treated respectfully and with dignity; a battle I fear is lost. I do not understand why. This administration has transformed the military through the reversal of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' and the inclusion of transgender men and women in the armed forces. I wonder what I could have been had these policies been implemented before I joined the Army. Would I have joined? Would I still be serving on active duty? I cannot say for sure.
"But what I do know is that I am a far different person than I was in 2010. I am not Bradley Manning. I really never was. I am Chelsea Manning, a proud woman who is transgender and who, through this application, is, respectfully requesting a first chance at life. I wish I were strong and mature enough to realize this back then."
Also included are letters from Colonel Morris Davis, former Chief Prosecutor for the Military Commissions at Guantanamo from 2005 to 2007 and resigned rather than use evidence obtained by torture. He was also the head of the U.S. Air Force Clemency Board and Parole Program.
In his two-page letter Colonel Morris wrote...
"PFC Manning signed the same security agreements that I did and there are consequences for violating those agreements, but the consequences should be fair, just and proportional to the harm. The primary focus of military justice is the maintenance of good order and discipline, and a key part of that is deterrence. I know of no soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who looks at the six-plus years PFC Manning has been confined and thinks he or she would like to trade places. That is particularly time of the period PFC Manning was incarcerated at Quantico under conditions the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture called 'cruel, inhuman and degrading' and that led to the resignation of then State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley (Colonel, U.S. Army, retired) after he called PFC Manning's treatment 'ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.' Reducing PFC Manning's sentence to 10 years will not cause any service member to think the penalty is so light that it might be worth taking the risk under similar circumstances..."Additionally, there is a long-standing perception in the military of disparate treatment. The phrase I heard repeatedly from the time I joined the Air Force in 1983 until the time I retired in 2008 was 'different spanks for different ranks.' I know that it is impossible to fairly compare cases, but rightly or wrongly there is a perception that senior military officers and senior government officials who disclose information get sweetheart deals while junior personnel get slammed. There have been high-profile cases since PFC Manning was sentenced that help perpetuate that notion. Reducing PFC Manning's sentence to 10 years will not erase the perception, but it will bring the playing field a little closer to level."
Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg also wrote a letter included in the petition package. Ellsberg wrote that it was his firm belief that PFC Manning "disclosed classified material for the purpose of informing the American people of serious human rights violations including the killing of innocent people by United States troops in Iraq. She hoped to begin a dialogue in our democratic society about the continuation of a war that she believed was wrong and was contributing to illegal acts...Ms. Manning has already served six years. This is longer than any other whistleblower in United States history."
A letter from Glenn Greenwald, former constitutional lawyer from New York and journalist at The Intercept, who has extensively covered issues of whistleblowing, press freedom, transparency, surveillance and the National Security Agency (NSA) was also included in the Petition for Clemency. Greenwald wrote:
"Remarkably, the difficultly of Chelsea's ordeal over the last several years has only strengthened her character. Whenever I have spoken with her about her prison life, she expresses nothing but compassion and understanding even for her jailers. She is devoid of the resentments and grievances which are common even among those with blessed lives, let alone those facing great deprivation. It's difficult to believe for those who don't know Chelsea -- and even for those of us who do know -- but the longer she has been in prison, the more compassionate and concerned for others she has become.(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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